Innovation, Collaboration, and Investment: Protecting Financial Inclusion Clients from Fraud and Scams
GASA’s 2025 State of Scams Report revealed that seven in ten adults globally had encountered a scam in the previous 12 months. Today, the rise of artificial intelligence is only increasing the scale and decreasing the cost. An effective response requires breaking down silos among regulators, financial institutions, technology providers, and funders, and matching collaboration with investment in solutions. PROTECT brings together these stakeholders.
This inaugural event of the PROTECT Talk Series features leading experts Mercedeh Mortazavi, Head of Financial Health at JPMorganChase and Eric Duflos, Senior Financial Sector Specialist at CGAP. The session will explore emerging solutions in digital finance, looking at both the promises and trade-offs, and diving into the recently published report by CGAP, “Solutions to Protect Consumers from Fraud in Digital Finance.” But to make solutions viable, there is a critical need for investment and cross-sector collaboration, as exemplified by JPMorganChase’s recent USD $14 million philanthropic investment to drive consumer awareness and deliver real-time solutions to combat fraud and scams.
Mercedeh Mortazavi, Head of Financial Health at JPMorganChase
Mercedeh Mortazavi is Head of Financial Health at JPMorganChase Global Philanthropy, leading the firm’s national US philanthropic strategy to improve financial health and resilience while advancing complementary strategic initiatives. In this role, she partners across communities and sectors to design, fund, and scale solutions that help consumers build stability and wealth and connect to broader pathways for inclusive economic growth.
Previously, Mercedeh directed the housing access and affordability portfolio, concentrating on housing supply and homeownership tied to economic opportunity. She also managed large-scale national initiatives—including the PRO Neighborhoods Competition and the AdvancingCities Challenge—that mobilize cross‑sector partners to address complex social and economic challenges in cities across the United States.
Across her twelve years at the firm, Mercedeh has held leadership roles that bridge business and community impact. Earlier, she managed Corporate Responsibility strategic initiatives for Greater Washington, D.C., working across lines of business to align brand, revenue, and community priorities and to deliver impactful philanthropic and business initiatives.
Mercedeh earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Management and International Business from the Pennsylvania State University’s Smeal College of Business and pursued additional study in International Business at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan.
Eric Duflos, Senior Financial Sector Specialist at CGAP
Eric Duflos leads CGAP’s work on consumer protection and responsible finance, from policy, industry and customer perspectives, ensuring that financial services have positive outcomes for customers. He also coordinates CGAP’s work with global Standard Setting Bodies.
Eric has 30 years of experience in advancing financial inclusion and economic development, with a strong focus on policy and regulatory issues. His most recent position was director of the office of the UNSGSA, H.M. Queen Máxima of the Netherlands where he supported her policy advocacy work. He also helped the UNSGSA design and launch the CEO Partnership for Economic Inclusion. Prior to this, Eric has held several positions within CGAP, including regional representative for East Asia and the Pacific based in Singapore. Eric’s research and advice have focused on client-centered policy and regulatory issues, and digital finance. In his last essay, he proposes a new way to think about consumer protection with a “Responsible Digital Finance Ecosystem” approach. Eric also leads CGAP’s current work on combating fraud & scams. He has authored numerous articles and publications and taught policy and regulation issues at the Turin/Boulder course, Sciences-Po Paris, and universities in Singapore.
Before joining CGAP, Eric worked seven years in the Lao PDR to support the emergence of a financial inclusion policy framework with UNCDF, the Bank of Lao PDR, and the World Bank. He holds a master’s degree in management from EM Lyon, and a master’s in economics and international relations from SAIS, Johns Hopkins University.
About PROTECT
Co-led by the Center for Financial Inclusion (CFI), the Inter-American Development Bank Group (IDB Group), and the Alliance for Innovative Regulation (AIR), PROTECT is a global initiative bringing together actors across the global financial inclusion ecosystem to tackle the rising threat of fraud and scams. The initiative brings together regulators, technology platforms, telcos, financial institutions, and funders working together to surface evidence, gather emerging solutions, advocate for allocation of resources, and build a support base for investment in combatting fraud and scams globally.